Texas Biomed and The Children’s Hospital of San Antonio join forces to cure mysterious condition

Texas Biomedical Research Institute and The Children's Hospital of San Antonio have joined forces to cure a mysterious condition called Kawasaki disease. The illness which affects young children is named after the Japanese doctor who first described it more than 50 years ago. However, researchers still do not know what causes the rashes, fever, and artery damage. Some type of infectious agent is suspected.

Dr. Mark Gorelik, a pediatric rheumatologist with The Children's Hospital of San Antonio and Baylor College of Medicine, is focusing his research on the role of a specific protein in creating the coronary artery aneurysms in Kawasaki disease patients. He treats patients with Kawasaki disease in an outpatient clinic at the downtown hospital.

When he needed a place for his mouse-animal model and experiments, he approached Scientist Jean Patterson, Ph.D., of Texas Biomedical Research Institute. She agreed to be his mentor and help him secure funding for the project.

"Most virologists, maybe bacteriologists, have always sort of had a passing interest in Kawasaki disease just because nobody knows what causes it," Dr. Patterson said. "It seems like by now we should have been able to figure it out. There's some mystery here that keeps it really tantalizing and frustrating."

Drs. Gorelik and Patterson secured funding from the Voelcker Fund Young Investigators Award, the William and Ella Owens Medical Research Foundation and the Vasculitis Foundation.

Gorelik started with just a few mice. Now, there are about 120 animals housed in a Biosafety Level 2 facility at Texas Biomed. He's using new technology to manipulate a gene and look at its impact on one particular protein that may be involved in damage to blood vessels.

"It's amazing the kind of technology that exists nowadays that you can actually sort of turn on something to clip out a very precise set of DNA and then the protein goes away," Dr. Gorelik commented.

With the animals, labs, technology and personnel in place, Dr. Patterson said Texas Biomed is a good fit for a collaboration with The Children's Hospital of San Antonio, crediting the veterinarians and veterinary care along with Dr. Gorelik's mouse model.

"Research institutes like the Texas Biomedical Research Institute bring all of the necessary factors together that allow researchers to spark combustion in science," Dr. Gorelik stressed.

The study, published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, was funded by the Chief Scientist Office, part of the Scottish Government Health Directorates.

Dr Nicola McCleary, who led the study at the University of Edinburgh's Asthma UK Centre for Applied Research, said: "Asthma and allergy symptoms are often affected by life events such as puberty and menopause, but the reasons behind this are unclear.

"In carrying out this systematic review, we noted that there were many differences between studies investigating hormonal treatments in terms of the type and dose of hormone, and the way patients took the treatment. This made it difficult to draw firm conclusions from the results. We are now undertaking a project to clarify the role of contraceptives and HRT in asthma and allergy symptoms."

Dr Aziz Sheikh, Director of the University of Edinburgh's Usher Institute for Population Health Sciences and Informatics, who was involved in the study, said: "Asthma can have a very serious impact on quality of life and costs the NHS £1bn annually. Our ultimate goal is to undertake a clinical trial to test the effectiveness of hormonal treatments to reduce symptoms of asthma in women."

Researchers find shortcomings in pregnancy and prenatal care for women with diabetes

Researchers who analyzed data from the UK's National Pregnancy in Diabetes Audit found concerning shortcomings in pregnancy preparation and prenatal care for women with diabetes. In addition, significant clinic-to-clinic variation across the England and Wales suggests opportunities for improvement.

The authors of the Diabetic Medicine analysis noted that better integration of care between primary and specialist teams; more effective use of technology; and focus on sex, contraception, and pregnancy planning are needed.

"A nationwide commitment to delivering integrated reproductive and diabetes healthcare interventions is needed to improve the health outcomes of women with diabetes," wrote the authors.

Data from the National Pregnancy in Diabetes (NPID) audit: Challenges and Opportunities for Improving Pregnancy Outcomes